Abstract
Almost no day goes by without news about unethical, misbehavingmanagers, sportsmen, or politicians that sought personal advantagesby exploiting third parties through breakingexplicit and implicit rules. Along with others we suggest that suchdefectivebehavior is fueled by winners-take-all contexts andlow probability of being disclosed and sanctioned. Focusing on costsandbenefits of honesty versus misconduct we elaboratewhether these conditions apply within academia, too. Based on aneconomically-basedbehavioral model we develop propositions that allowfor future tests and outline promising avenues for research andacademicpractice.